At least 30 gunmen killed a Kosovar Albanian police officer then stormed an Orthodox monastery in Kosovo near its border with Serbia, setting off gunbattles that left three assailants dead and raised tensions between the two former wartime foes as they seek to normalize ties.
Police surrounded Banjska, a village located 55 kilometers north of Kosovo's capital where the monastery is located, and the gunfire is continuing, according to Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Kosovo's interior minister stated later Sunday that the area was under control but he did not say if the gunmen had left.
Earlier this month, an EU-facilitated meeting in Brussels between Kurti and Vucic to normalize ties ended in acrimony. The United States has supported the negotiations and the EU's position in trying to resolve the ongoing source of tension in the Balkans. At a news conference Kurti displayed a set of photos which showed a number of four-wheel drive vehicles without license plates and an armored personnel carrier "which does not belong to the Kosovo police" near the monastery.
"It was a real little war: first some gunfire, then silence, shootings, detonations," Serbian news agency Kossev quoted an unidentified resident as saying.
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